Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II eBook

to the Golden Milestone at the foot of the Temple
of Saturn.[55] There thirty-three soldiers of the Body
Guard saluted him as emperor. When he showed alarm
at the smallness of their number they put him hastily
into a litter, and, drawing their swords, hurried
him away. About the same number of soldiers joined
them on the way, some accomplices, others merely curious.
Some marched along shouting and flourishing swords;
others kept silent, intending to take their cue from
subsequent events.

Julius Martialis was the tribune on duty in the camp.
He was so 28 overcome by the magnitude of
this unexpected crime and so afraid that the treason
was widespread in the camp, and that he might be killed
if he offered any opposition, that he led most people
to suppose he was in the plot. So, too, the other
tribunes and centurions all preferred present safety
to a risky loyalty. In fact the general attitude
was this: few dared to undertake so foul a crime,
many wished to see it done, and everybody was ready
to condone it.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] Cp. chap. 13.

[48] Decrees excluding astrologers
from Italy had been passed
in B.C. 33, A.D. 16, and again in A.D. 52.
Vitellius passed
another. See ii. 62.

[49] Nero’s wife. Cp.
chap. 13.

[50] i.e. to Lusitania.
See chap. 13.

[51] They were ‘Guards’
who had escorted Nero on his singing
tours through Greece. Perhaps some of
them came to meet Galba
on his way from Spain. Otherwise they
could not have shared
the toils of this march.

[52] See chap. 72.

[53] The public dinner given in
older days by patrons to their
clients had long ago been commuted for a
‘tip’ (sportula).
Pudens, instead of providing dinner for Galba’s
guard, sought
their favour by giving them about 17_s._
apiece.

[54] The English terms do not of
course represent the exact
position of these soldiers. The former
was one of the
emperor’s personal body-guard (speculatores),
who received the
watchword (tessera) and passed it round:
the latter was one to
whom a centurion had delegated some part
of his work.

[55] Plutarch explains this.
‘He passed through Tiberius’
house, as it is called, and walked down to
the Forum, where
stands the golden pillar to which all the
high-roads of Italy
lead.’ The Velabrum lies between
the Forum, the Tiber, and the
Aventine.

THE FALL OF GALBA

Meanwhile Galba in total ignorance and intent upon
his sacrifices 29 continued to importune the
gods of an empire that had already ceased to be his.
First there came a rumour that some one or other of
the senators was being hurried to the camp, then that
it was Otho. Immediately people who had met Otho
came flocking in from all quarters of Rome; some in
their terror exaggerated the truth, some minimized
it, remembering even then to flatter. After discussion
it was decided that the temper of the cohort on guard
in the palace should be tested, but not by Galba himself.
His authority was held in reserve for more heroic
remedies. The troops were summoned. Piso,
standing out on the steps of the palace, addressed
them as follows: